All posts tagged ‘The Next Generation’

Whilst the attendance of the Five Captains was clearly the central selling point of Destination Star Trek London, they were by no means the only thing there. Dozens of other cast and crew members were present, signing autographs, doing photo-shoots and giving talks.

There were also many debates, panels and discussions taking place over the weekend from “Best Star Trek Movie” on Friday night to “The Evolution of The Fan” and “Creating the Enterprise”. No matter how well you planned your schedule, you simply could never see everything the convention had to offer.

All the talks barring those by the captains had been made available free of charge, including those by popular Trek actors like Brent Spiner (Commander Data) and John de Lancie (Q). This was both a blessing and a curse and it seemed the organisers had massively underestimated interest in these talks and had located them inside a tiny stage area; subsequently the ticket organisation became farcical over the weekend for anyone wanting to attend.

On the Friday free tickets were handed out for that afternoon’s talks and the Alternative Opening Ceremony but these were never checked by the crew so guests just walked in freely and scrums of people stood by the entrances once every available seat and inch of standing room had been packed out. On Saturday therefore, many people never bothered picking up the free tickets only to be turned away at the stage entrances.

Guests with gold passes were supposed to have access to all talks included with their passes but the system of entry for these was confused as well, with some staff admitting anyone with a gold pass and others turning them away unless they had queued separately for free talk tickets which had all been handed out early in the day. The system for picking up the free tickets also changed each day, adding to the general confusion. On the Sunday, I found myself present at one talk where the guest, John de Lancie, was brought on-stage before almost half the ticket holders had been admitted to the room. This resulted in people rushing and grabbing seats in an occasionally dangerous manner and forcing others to climb over chairs to take spare seats. Just a few minutes delay in beginning the talk would have prevented this. The organisers have posted their comments on the fan feedback and much of those centred on the small talk stage and ticket organisation, whether a better system is introduced at the company’s next event remains to be seen.

The bad organisation is a real shame as once you were seated in your chosen talk or other session, each one was interesting and engaging.

John de Lancie talked about working on his forthcoming documentary on BronyCon and about working with his son on Star Trek when Keegan de Lancie played Q Junior on Star Trek Voyager. “Working with my son was strange as an actor because I was more concerned about his job than I was about mine,” he told us.

Brent Spiner’s talk also involved children, mostly because of the number present in the audience asking him questions. He talked about Spot the cat, “the worst actor I ever worked with,” and about spending the previous night with several friends at Patrick Stewart’s London apartment – his Patrick impersonation is excellent. Brent also won the award for “weirdest question I have ever heard asked at a convention” when someone asked, “if you ever found yourself mutated into a hideous arachnid but with your own head, would you do the decent thing and change your name to Brent Spider?” After getting past his initial confusion, Brent confirmed that indeed he would.

One of the things that any good Star Trek fan knows is that over the years, each of the five actors and actresses to play the role of captain on Star Trek has brought their own unique style to the role. That was never more apparent to me than at Star Trek London where I got to listen to each of these talented actors speak freely and answer questions from their fans. Although each talk was a carbon copy of the others in terms of setup and format, all five were wildly different experiences thanks entirely to the individual on the stage.

Avery Brooks spoke little about Star Trek and instead focused his answers on family, fatherhood and how his work has affected those personal roles for him. Scott Bakula was possibly the most easy going of all the captains; his talk felt like an intimate conversation in a bar despite the thousands of people around us. This was a direct contrast to William Shatner’s, whose classical training and unique personality shone out from the stage. His answers were long, divergent and always told a great story. Sir Patrick Stewart, the only local of the group, was eager to talk about his home country and past experiences while Kate Mulgrew was possibly the most welcoming of all, full of life and happy to discuss any topic — she even brought fans up on stage with her and made it clear how much she loved being among the people in the room. All five talks were fascinating and all five captains seemed genuinely happy to be on the stage, which was deeply refreshing to see. There were so many great moments across the five discussions that I wish it were possible to simply transcribe each of them here. Instead, I have condensed each down to some of my favorite moments that I can share with you.

First of all, thank you for the suggestions on which Star Trek episodes I should watch with my kids to give them a good feel for the universe in my previous post. My original goal was a dozen per series (except for Voyager which we plan on watching all the seasons.) You guys are very enthusiastic and if I follow all of your advice we will be watching TV for several hours a day throughout their high school careers. Therefore I’m asking for help again.

What follows is the list I created based on all the suggestions. If everyone selects their favorite three episodes from each series, I think that will narrow it down to something more manageable. If you only like one series, just comment on that one. If you didn’t get in the first round, add your favorite now! In addition to helping me, I think this could be a definitive GeekParent List of Star Trek for Kids. Which would be cool.

We did watch TOS Trouble with Tribbles this week. The kids were bored, then very amused.